October 15 - Day 147 (146.5) -

When I get to work on Monday morning I will have less than 100 miles to go on the challenge. If all goes to plan, it will end on Thursday when I arrive at the Centre, hopefully a bit later than usual so that the clients can see me arriving.

It seemed so far away back in February but now it’s drawing to an end, I feel a bit sad. That’s mainly due to the amazing support and generous donations but also for the fabulous sights I’ve experienced, not least the sun trying to get through the mist, as shown in today’s picture. If you’d have asked me at 7.20 this morning though, I might have been less enthusiastic, when it felt freezing and the hills even steeper (They do seem to increase in gradient every Friday!) Even the sheep and the woolly cows didn’t look too warm.

Which leads me to today’s focus - To pull the wool over someone’s eyes. We started talking this morning about where it comes from so, as usual, I had to look it up and then share it with you. Although it means to deceive, the saying is often linked to the 17th and 18th centuries when it was fashionable to wear woollen wigs and they could be teased by pulling them down over their eyes. It has also been attributed to robbers pulling a victim's hood over his/her eyes so as not to see what is being stolen. This could be, alongside the reference to blindfolding, one of the origins of the phrase hoodwink as well.

Evidence of the phrase being used in print does not seem to be found until America in the 19th Century and is more likely, therefore, to be linked to the idea of sheep who have not been shorn and have wool left over their eyes.

So, as we go into the weekend, take care not to let anyone pull the wool over your eyes - not least so you are able to see the everyday views and scenes so easily missed.